President Obama has now taken the unprecedented step of unilaterally ordering the Justice Department to not defend a federal law under court challenge, in this case the Defense of Marriage Act.
As always with such matters concerning "Justice", Attorney General Eric Holder is leading the charge in trampling the rule of law:
"'[T]he President has concluded that given a number of factors, including a documented history of discrimination, classifications based on sexual orientation should be subject to a more heightened standard of scrutiny,' Mr. Holder said. 'The President has also concluded that Section 3 of DOMA, as applied to legally married same-sex couples, fails to meet that standard and is therefore unconstitutional. Given that conclusion, the President has instructed the Department not to defend the statute in such cases. I fully concur with the President’s determination.'"
Why, we don't need courts at all anymore in this country. Messrs. Obama and Holder have apparently decided that they are the final arbiters about which laws are constitutional and which aren't, and the other two branches of government can simply go suck eggs.
This overreaching of authority on the part of Dear Leader has nothing to do with the issue of gay marriage, no matter what side of that contentious issue one favors, but rather is all about a rogue executive branch arrogantly ignoring a statute which was enacted by Congress, signed into law by a president and which has not to date been struck down by a court.
In other words, Dear Leader has just circumvented our entire system of government by basically telling the nation's law enforcement department not to enforce a law. It doesn't matter one bit if that statute concerns a hot-button issue such as gay rights or such a mundane one as the maximum weight of a semitrailer on the interstate - it's the law of the land until it is repealed or struck down, and the Justice Department is duty bound to prosecute under its auspices and defend any challenges to it in court.
Until today, as one more bit of our Constitution is flagrantly discarded by this community organizer and his minions.
The craziest thing about this whole story is that Dear Leader still can't bring himself to take a position one way or the other on the very issue at hand:
"The White House says President Barack Obama is "grappling" with his personal views on gay marriage even as he's ordered the Justice Department to stop defending the constitutionality of a law that bans it."
The only thing about this entire matter he's "grappling" about is the fact that his liberal base overwhelmingly supports gay marriage while at the same time his black voter base overwhelmingly does not. He needs both constituencies to win reelection in 2012, so it will be very interesting to watch him squirm, vacillate and ultimately not take a position one way or the other. Such indecisiveness on his part truly illustrates the opportunistic, rudderless, incompetent leader he really is.
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3 comments:
Actually, to a degree, the President is right here. Now I don't agree with the Constitutional reasoning--the 14th Amendment by no means requires the government to solemnize same sex partnerships--but the Constitution does not allocate the sole right of judicial review to the judiciary. Historically, portions have been asserted by states (nullification), juries (jury nullification), and even Presidents--witness the "signing statements" of Presidents Clinton, Bush, and Obama.
The trick is that when a President arguably oversteps his powers--say by refusing to build the border fence or issuing signing statements--it is impeachable.
All Obama is doing is taking advantage of a Congress that won't do the right thing and kick him out of 1600 Pennsylvania for his repeated violations of law--e.g. refusal to allow drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.
Obama has done much that is impeachable. But so did Clinton, who was impeached. But that effort failed, so no one's going to bother this time, and Obama knows it.
It seems impeachment isn't what it used to be. Even when people fail utterly and miserably, they used to resign. Now...we've lost any honor we once had. There are no consequences for the deeds or misdeeds that take place. The impeached project the attitude 'So what?' and keep going.
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